Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation (TTC) is a state-owned enterprise of Tuvalu, which provides fixed-line telephone communications to subscribers on each of the islands of Tuvalu. Each island in Tuvalu relies on TTC for the use of a satellite dish for inter-island telephone communication and internet access. TTC also provides mobile phone services on Funafuti and Vaitupu. TTC is the sole provider of Telecommunications in Tuvalu. TTC is established by the Tuvalu Telecommunications Corporation Act 1993. (Full article...)
Sopoaga was elected to Parliament in the 2010 general election. He served as deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, the environment and labour in Prime Minister Maatia Toafa's short-lived government from September to December 2010. Following an unsuccessful bid for the premiership in December 2010 (with Toafa's support), he became leader of the Opposition to prime minister Willy Telavi's government. He became caretaker prime minister on 1 August 2013 following Telavi's removal by the Governor General, in the context of a political crisis. A day later, on 2 August 2013, the opposition successfully voted out Telavi's government in a no confidence vote. Following this, a ballot was held to elect the new prime minister of Tuvalu and Sopoaga won with 8 votes to 4. He was sworn in on 5 August 2013, and created his ministry the same day. (Full article...)
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Finikaso in 2019
Taukelina Finikaso (born 10 January 1959) is a political figure from the Pacific nation of Tuvalu. At the 2006 general election, he was elected MP for his home constituency of Vaitupu. He was educated in Kiribati and Fiji before acquiring a Law Degree at the University of Tasmania and a master's degree in International Law from Sydney University. Finikaso was admitted on 16 October 1987 to the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. Prior to entering into politics, Finikaso worked as a lawyer and then as a Permanent Secretary under the different ministries of the Government. Finikaso has been a Member of Parliament for the Constituency of Vaitupu from 2006 to 2019. He was not re-elected in the 2019 general election. (Full article...)
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Tuvalu elects a legislature on a national level. The Parliament of Tuvalu (Palamene o Tuvalu) has 16 members, elected for a four-year term in 8 double-seat constituencies. Tuvalu is a de facto non-partisan democracy since it does not have political parties. The political system is based on personal alliances and loyalties derived from clan and family connections. It does tend to have both a distinct government and a distinct opposition. The 16 members of the current parliament are elected from eight two-seat constituencies via plurality block voting.
Various names were given to individual islands by the captains and chartmakers on visiting European ships. In 1819 the island of Funafuti, was named Ellice Island; the name Ellice Islands was later applied to all nine islands, after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. (Full article...)
The traditional music of Tuvalu consists of dances, including fatele, fakanau and fakaseasea. The influence of the Samoan missionaries sent to Tuvalu by the London Missionary Society from the 1860s resulted in the suppression of songs about the traditional religions or magic and many songs were lost. As the influence of the missionaries diminished in the 20th century the traditional dances were revived and the siva dance tradition from Samoa also became popular.
Te titi tao is a traditional skirt placed upon another skirt - a titi kaulama - and tops (teuga saka), headbands, armbands, and wristbands continue to be used in performances of the fatele. (Full article...)
Funafuti is an atoll, comprising numerous islets, that is the capital of Tuvalu. As of the 2017 census, it has a population of 6,320 people. More people live in Funafuti than the rest of Tuvalu combined, with it containing approximately 60% of the nation's population. The main islet, Fongafale, hosts Vaiaku, the administrative center of the nation.
Funafuti was first sighted by Europeans in 1819 by Arent Schuyler de Peyster, an American sea captain, who named it Ellice's Island. Between 1850 and 1875. In 1892, each of the Ellice Islands was declared a British protectorate by Captain Herbert Gibson of HMSCuracoa. In 1909, the first resident magistrate was appointed to Funafuti; in 1915, Funafuti, along with the rest of the Ellice Islands, were incorporated into the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as a crown colony. In October 1942, during World War II, Funafuti was occupied by American forces to serve as a strategic staging ground for the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. Over the course of the war, the Americans dredged Funafuti's lagoon harbor and established the atoll's airfield, now known as Funafuti International Airport. In October 1972, Cyclone Bebe struck Funafuti, causing extensive damage; despite this Funafuti was chosen as the administrative capital of the newly founded nation of Tuvalu in 1978. As the capital of Tuvalu, Funafuti is by far the most urbanized atoll in the country, and is the hub of governmental, administrative, and economic activities. (Full article...)
Tuvaluan woman performing a traditional dance at Auckland's Pasifika Festival in 2011. Women in Tuvalu continue to maintain a traditional Polynesian culture within a predominantly Christian society. Tuvaluan cultural identity is sustained through an individual's connection to their home island. In the traditional community system in Tuvalu, each family has its own task, or salanga, to perform for the community. The skills of a family are passed on from parents to children. The women of Tuvalu participate in the traditional music of Tuvalu and in the creation of the art of Tuvalu including using cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts. There are opportunities of further education and paid employment with non-government organisations (NGOs) and government enterprises, education and health agencies being the primary opportunities for Tuvaluan women.
The number of women holding positions of Assistant Secretaries in government departments has increased from 20% in 2012 to nearly 50% in 2014. Also at the nine Island Kaupule (Local Councils) the representation of women has increased from 1 in 2012 to 3 in 2014. (Full article...)
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The Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau (now trading as Tuvalu Post Limited) is the government body in Tuvalu that issues new stamps and first day covers, which are available for purchase by stamp collectors around the world. The Bureau is located in Funafuti.
The sale of stamps has since the independence of Tuvalu in 1976 has been an important source of revenue for the country and government. However, such revenue has significantly declined in recent years. (Full article...)
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Naama Maheu Latasi, Lady Latasi (died 16 March 2012) was a Tuvaluan politician. She stood for election in the constituency of Nanumea in 1989 and was elected to the Parliament of Tuvalu. Lady Latasi served as Minister of Health, Education and Community Services in the first Government of Prime Minister of TuvaluBikenibeu Paeniu. She was the first female member of parliament in Tuvaluan history. An amazing feat, that served to both pave the way for other aspiring female members of parliament today, but propelled the movement of gender equality. She served in Parliament from 1989 to 1997. Although she was not re-elected in the first 1993 general election but regained her seat in parliament in the second 1993 general election. (Full article...)
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Tuvalu consists of nine separate islands: six atolls and three reef islands. An atoll typically consists of several motus: Tuvalu has a total of 124 islands and islets. Each island is surrounded by a coral reef. The soils of Tuvalu's islands are usually shallow, porous, alkaline, coarse-textured, with carbonate mineralogy and high pH values of up to 8.2 to 8.9. The soils are usually deficient in most of the important nutrients needed for plant growth, so garden beds need to be enhanced with mulch to increase their fertility. Tuvalu's small, widely scattered atolls have a total land area of only about 26 square kilometres (10 square miles) making Tuvalu the fourth-smallest country in the world.
The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has been rising at a rate of 3.9mm per year, and it has been determined that rising sea levels are causing more wave energy to be transferred across reef surfaces, which has tended to push more sand onto island shorelines, increasing islands’ land area. Over a recent four-decade period, there was a net increase in the land area of the islets of 2.9% (73.5 ha), although the changes were not uniform: About 74% of them increased in size and about 27% decreased in size. (Full article...)
Tuvalu is a very small island country of 26km2 (10mi2). In terms of physical land size, Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City—0.44km2; Monaco—1.95km2 and Nauru—21km2. it is the second-least populated independent country in the world, with a population of 10,507 (2017 Census). Because of the small size of the economy of Tuvalu, its foreign relations are limited to its most important partners. Tuvalu maintains close relations with Fiji, New Zealand, Australia (which has maintained a High Commission in Tuvalu since 2018), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the European Union. (Full article...)
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The Tuvalu Trust Fund is an international sovereign wealth fund established to benefit Tuvalu, a small, central Pacific island nation, by providing income to cover shortfalls in the national budget, underpin economic development, and help the nation achieve greater financial autonomy. The Tuvalu Trust Fund was established in 1987 by the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2014 Country Report noted the market value of the Tuvalu Trust Fund dropped during the 2008 financial crisis; however, the IMF 2016 Country Report estimates the total value of the fund had recovered to be AUD$131 million in 2012. The policy of the Tuvaluan government has been to grow the maintained value of the Consolidated Investment Fund (CIF), from which the government can draw funds for government expenditure; during 2016-2020 the government was able to save an average of 6.6% of GDP into the CIF. (Full article...)
U.S. Marine Corps Grumman F4F-4 Wildcats of Marine Fighting Squadron 441 (VMF-441) at Nanumea Airfield on the island of Nanumea, Ellice Islands (now known as Tuvalu), October 23, 1943
Image 4The atoll of Funafuti; borings into a coral reef and the results, being the report of the Coral Reef Committee of the Royal Society (1904). (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 5Main Street in Funafuti (circa 1905) (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 13Polynesia is the largest of three major cultural areas in the Pacific Ocean. Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian triangle. (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 14Martin Kleis (1850–1908) with Kotalo Kleis and their son Hans Martin Kleis (from History of Tuvalu)
Image 15Ocean side of Funafuti atoll showing the storm dunes, the highest point on the atoll. (from Geography of Tuvalu)
Image 321st Lt. Louis Zamperini, peers through a hole in his B-24D Liberator 'Super Man' made by a 20mm shell over Nauru, 20 April 1943 (from History of Tuvalu)
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